Recently, office automation equipment (hereinafter referred to as "OA equipment") has come into common use in most offices. As the number of OA equipment units increases, maldistribution of heat load due to the heat generated by them becomes conspicuous, resulting in some parts of the room being rather warm and the other parts thereof too cold. This maldistribution is hard to eliminate by overall air conditioning, and requires complicated and expensive air conditioning equipment.
The radiation type air conditioners utilizing thermoelectric elements, proposed by Kanichi Kadotani and Tetsuo Onishi (see Japanese Patent Applications No. 62-97606 and 62-160939), are examples of apparatus for locally adjusting room temperature conditions.
FIGS. 1a, 1b and 1c illustrate a partition unit constituting a radiating air conditioner of this type; the partition unit is shown here in a front view, a partially sectional view taken in the direction of the arrow X, and a sectional view taken in the direction of the arrow Y. This partition unit is covered on all sides with panels. The front panel IF has, in the upper section thereof, a cooling plate 2 which is equipped, on its rear side, with a plurality of thermoelectric elements 2a and associated radiation fins 2b. Provided in the middle section of the front panel IF are air inlets 4a, breeze outlets 4b, and a power switch 5. Heat-dissipating-air inlets 3a and a heat-dissipating-air outlet 3b are provided in the middle section of the rear panel 1R and in the upper panel 1U, respectively. Provided in the middle section of the inner space of the partition unit 1 are a crossflow fan 3 for heat-dissipating-air blowing and a crossflow fan 4 for blowing out breeze, which are set in the horizontal position and are spaced apart from each other with respect to a vertical line. A power source controller 6 is provided below these crossflow fans.
When, in this construction, the power source controller 6 is operated by turning on the power switch 5 and electricity is supplied to the thermoelectric elements 2a so as to cause the cooling plate 2 to absorb heat by the Peltier effect, radiation cooling is effected on the front side (the side of the front panel IF) of the partition unit 1. The air 30, which is sucked in through the heat-dissipating-air inlets 3a by the crossflow fan 3 for heat-dissipating-air blowing, flows through an air passage 7 and comes into contact generated by the thermoelectric elements 2a. The air 30 is then discharged, as exhaust 31, to the exterior through the radiation outlet 3b in the upper panel 1U.
On the other hand, the air 40, which is sucked in through the air inlets 4a in the front panel IF by the crossflow fan 4 for blowing out breeze, is blown out, as air 41, through the breeze outlets 4b, thereby effecting convection cooling on the front side (the side of the front panel 1F) of the partition unit 1.
Thus, the radiation cooling by the cooling plate 2 is combined with the convection cooling by the crossflow fan 4 for blowing out breeze, thereby locally providing comfortable coolness.
However, the above described partition type radiation local air conditioning unit has the following problems: